Most of you didn’t vote Tuesday, and one of the reasons was that there was so little to vote for.

On many ballots, uncontested races outnumbered contested ones. That’s not unusual for a primary election, but there will still be plenty of uncontested races in the fall general election.

That’s because politics is a game in which the winners help each other out. Those winners draw legislative district maps to keep them and their buddies in power. It’s why 98 percent of incumbents get re-elected.

In Illinois, lately that’s been Democrats. In other states, Republicans are just as guilty.

That can change if enough people see the need for change.

The Yes For Independent Maps campaign is an attempt to take politics out of the redistricting process. The Yes group, which has an office at 123 N. Alpine Road in Rockford, is gathering signatures on petitions with the intent of placing a referendum question on the November ballot that could lead to a more transparent and fair redistricting process in the state.

Every 10 years, states go through the process of redistricting, which has been required since the U.S. Supreme Court’s “one person, one vote” decision in 1964. In that landmark case, the court required that legislative districts had to represent equal numbers of people. Every decade, districts were to be redrawn according to new census figures.

Yes For Independent Maps needs to collect 300,000 valid signatures to place the proposal on the ballot, but Michael Kolenc, the campaign coordinator, says the group hopes to turn in about 450,000 signatures, the better to withstand challenges from the Democratic and Republican parties.

About six weeks are left in the petition drive, and the more signatures the better. You know that the people in power will do everything possible to retain their power. We encourage you to sign a petition and restore democracy in Illinois.

The current redistricting process gives us only the illusion of democracy. Politicians choose their voters — the reverse of what the electoral process should be. Maps are drawn so that the party in power can have as many like-minded folks within the boundaries as possible.

Why should you care? Does it really matter who is elected and which party is in power? We think it does.

Men and women who could be good state senators or representatives are discouraged from running for office because they have little hope of election. The districts are so badly gerrymandered that it’s nearly impossible for a Republican to get elected in some districts or a Democrat in others. Good candidates are forced to the sidelines.

That matters because the lawmakers of this state are not doing a good job. Illinois is one of only two states where unemployment rose last year. It has the second-highest unemployment rate in the nation. It has the worst pension liability, the worst credit and it can’t pay its bills in a timely manner.

Page 2 of 2 - We can’t say whether a new group of lawmakers can fix those problems, but we’re pretty certain they couldn’t do much worse.

Reform is a long way away. Even if the measure is put on the ballot and approved by voters in November, it won’t be until after the 2020 census that we’ll see a new system in action.

However, the process is worth pursuing. Sign a petition. Let’s bring a measure of fairness back to Illinois.